LA Jury Gives Grim Reaper Serial Killer The Death Penalty

By: Clayton Browne | September 1, 2015

The families of 10 murdered women can rest a little easier on Monday after the Grim Reaper serial killer was sentenced to death for his crimes.

It took five long years since his arrest in 2010, but a jury in Los Angeles finally sentenced the man convicted in the "Grim Sleeper" serial killings to death on Monday.

Of note, 63-year-old Lonnie Franklin Jr. was found guilty last month on 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder relating to the deaths of nine women and a 15-year-old girl over the two preceding decades.

The jury, comprised of seven women and five men, took their time and deliberated for 1 1/2 days before returning the verdict of death on May 5th.

The final sentencing of the Grim Reaper took place just past noon on Monday at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Prosecutors had made it clear from the beginning of the trial that they intended to seek the death penalty in this case.

Franklin was a former city sanitation worker, and had been convicted of killing the female victims over 22 years between 1985 and 2007. The often multi-year time gap between murders led to Franklin’s "Grim Sleeper" nickname.